Glimmer Train Stories, 102 - Tapa blanda

Jonathan Muzzall
Killer and Crud Get Married
Killer said, "I want to thank you again for accepting my apology without any fuss."

Alexandra Chang
Tomb Sweeping Day
I watched him glide into the sea, first to his ankles, then to his thighs. He stood still in one spot for some time--seconds or minutes, I'm not sure--and then began to sway gently from left to right.

Katherine Hubbard
Hamlet
In those days I was particularly contemptuous of Long Island and New Jersey--bridge and tunnelers, we called them.

Taylor Koekkoek
Thrill-Ville USA
Joanie's hair was so black that right when I met her, I decided that everyone I'd ever thought of as having black hair really had dark brown hair.

Colin Fleming
Last Light Out
That root doesn't run as deep, a root is a root is a root, and you'll take a root in this life when you can get a root.

Valerie Trueblood
Crisco
When they were seniors the hero of the basketball team was her boyfriend, something everybody in the county knew, even grade school kids.

Jamel Brinkley
Everything the Mouth Eats
In spite of this, I had decided that the true purpose of eighth grade, my last year at the school, was to figure out girls.

Jad Josey
The Whole Sky Fell
"I don't see anything," the dark-haired girl whispered. "I see everything," said the other one.

Amanda S. Torres
Fortuna
It was like we were counting down to something without knowing when it would occur, and with no time with which to count down.

Madiha Sattar
Mulberry Street
This is not the way we do it at home. At home we know our neighbors' names, and the names of their children and grandchildren and in-laws, and we don't need to read notices to learn that they have died.

Ben Stroud
Anselmo
The one agreed-upon certainty among the thousands trapped inside Rome's walls was that whatever calamity was coming would soon come. Today, tomorrow--that soon.

Chase Burke
That's That
Nobody knows what to do about the grenade. Me and Smith and Barkley are alone in the office on a Saturday when it rolls in. Plink then thunk then a whisper across the old carpet. It comes to a rest under Barkley's desk.

Alberto Manguel
Interview by Jennifer Levasseur and Kevin Rabalais
As a child, I started reading, as we all do, believing the truth of the story not necessarily believing that Little Red Riding Hood existed, but believing that this happens, that the story is telling something that is true.